In a nozzleless ink jet printer, a plate-shaped propagation element for propagating a surface acoustic wave is fixedly mounted on a substrate which is arranged along the platen and has an ink pooling groove, and the ink led to the edge of the propagation element from the ink pooling groove by surface tension is caused to jet in the form of ink mist by surface acoustic waves generated by excitation of comb-shaped interleaved electrodes so as to record images such as characters and patterns on a recording sheet.